workout
What's the difference between a route and a workout?
02/10/08 09:15 Filed in: Conceptual
Problem: You have imported recorded GPS data into TrailRunner and you want to modify the course of the data to use it as directions for a future workout. But it seems that this is not possible.
Background: Within TrailRunner there is an important conceptual difference between display of a workout recording and route planning.
Solution: During import of a GPS recoding, please note the following difference:
(a) A workout recoding is a recoding. Fixed as it is. You can import workout recordings into the TrailRunner diary and archive your workout there. You cannot modify workouts.
(b) On the other hand, TrailRunner lets you "copy" the geographical part of the recording and merge this into your network of tracks. During import of the geographical data, choose one of the Import options to merge the geographical information into your main document.
(c) During merge, TrailRunner will do two things, depending on the merge option you’ve chosen: TrailRunner will create at least one track that contains the geographical course. Additionally TrailRunner will create a route that makes use of that track. Geographically the route and the workout course are now almost identical. But it’s only the exact same course but nothing more. It’s a course that others, including yourself, might follow in the future.
Futher note: When you are new to TrailRunner this sounds more complicated than what you expect. But after you have imported more than one route you will notice that the courses might overlap and that you have locations where you made a left turn in the one recording and a right turn in the other recoding. When you plan third new route, you could either plan to follow this or that way. In theory you have an overlap and a crossing-point. In TrailRunner this is managed by your network of tracks.
Background: Within TrailRunner there is an important conceptual difference between display of a workout recording and route planning.
Solution: During import of a GPS recoding, please note the following difference:
(a) A workout recoding is a recoding. Fixed as it is. You can import workout recordings into the TrailRunner diary and archive your workout there. You cannot modify workouts.
(b) On the other hand, TrailRunner lets you "copy" the geographical part of the recording and merge this into your network of tracks. During import of the geographical data, choose one of the Import options to merge the geographical information into your main document.
(c) During merge, TrailRunner will do two things, depending on the merge option you’ve chosen: TrailRunner will create at least one track that contains the geographical course. Additionally TrailRunner will create a route that makes use of that track. Geographically the route and the workout course are now almost identical. But it’s only the exact same course but nothing more. It’s a course that others, including yourself, might follow in the future.
Futher note: When you are new to TrailRunner this sounds more complicated than what you expect. But after you have imported more than one route you will notice that the courses might overlap and that you have locations where you made a left turn in the one recording and a right turn in the other recoding. When you plan third new route, you could either plan to follow this or that way. In theory you have an overlap and a crossing-point. In TrailRunner this is managed by your network of tracks.
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Why are distances in Garmin Training Center and TrailRunner sometime different?
21/09/08 02:22 Filed in: Import
Problem: The ForeRunner device displays a distance for a workout. Garmin Training Center displays the same distance but TrailRunner displays a different distance.
Background: Your ForeRunner records geographical data points during the workout. At the same time your ForeRunner internally sums up the distance for the workout. It could sometimes happen that if you sum up the distances between each data points the result will be different to what the ForeRunner has summed up during the workout.
Reason: If you have intelligent recording enabled on your ForeRunner and the GPS signal quality isn't too good, the device will alter the recorded geographical course after it knows better. Problem is that at the same time the overall distance should also be adjusted, which is not the case.
Status: TrailRunner takes only the geographical information from the workout and takes this as the base. If your ForeRunner has internally stored a different distance, TrailRunner assumes this as an error in the ForeRunner device as it delivers contradictory information.
Background: Your ForeRunner records geographical data points during the workout. At the same time your ForeRunner internally sums up the distance for the workout. It could sometimes happen that if you sum up the distances between each data points the result will be different to what the ForeRunner has summed up during the workout.
Reason: If you have intelligent recording enabled on your ForeRunner and the GPS signal quality isn't too good, the device will alter the recorded geographical course after it knows better. Problem is that at the same time the overall distance should also be adjusted, which is not the case.
Status: TrailRunner takes only the geographical information from the workout and takes this as the base. If your ForeRunner has internally stored a different distance, TrailRunner assumes this as an error in the ForeRunner device as it delivers contradictory information.
Does TrailRunner support the Polar XXX monitor?
15/09/08 22:53 Filed in: Import
Problem: TrailRunner is not able to directly import Polar Workout data from the monitor.
Solution: With the helper application TrackRecord you can download workouts for some SonicLink Polar devices but Infrared is not supported. If you can manage to download HRM files with e.g. a windows emulator and Polar software you can import the file into TrailRunner. But it requires that you have worn a foot-pod during the workout as TrailRunner relies on the distance information to display a workout chart and merge the workout data with the course of a route.
> Supported Devices
Solution: With the helper application TrackRecord you can download workouts for some SonicLink Polar devices but Infrared is not supported. If you can manage to download HRM files with e.g. a windows emulator and Polar software you can import the file into TrailRunner. But it requires that you have worn a foot-pod during the workout as TrailRunner relies on the distance information to display a workout chart and merge the workout data with the course of a route.
> Supported Devices
How can I export my diary
24/08/08 12:04 Filed in: Diary
Problem: While Trailrunner already has some statistical graphs built in, you sometimes still want to create your own graphs like e.g "calories burnt per kilometer".
Solution: Select the diary entries in TrailRunner and use Edit > Copy to paste the data into an external spreadsheet application like NeoOffice or Excel. To select all etries in TrailRunner, use Command-A.
Tip: If you import your data into NeoOffice, follow these step to make NeoOffice use one column for each diary column.
Copy the diary entries
Open NeoOffice and select a new spreadsheet.
Press Command-P to paste the history in.
In the popup that appears, verify the Separator options - the settings should be “separated by tab".
Solution: Select the diary entries in TrailRunner and use Edit > Copy to paste the data into an external spreadsheet application like NeoOffice or Excel. To select all etries in TrailRunner, use Command-A.
Tip: If you import your data into NeoOffice, follow these step to make NeoOffice use one column for each diary column.
Copy the diary entries
Open NeoOffice and select a new spreadsheet.
Press Command-P to paste the history in.
In the popup that appears, verify the Separator options - the settings should be “separated by tab".
What's the difference between the main document window and the diary?
13/08/08 09:00 Filed in: Conceptual
Problem: I expect that when I import new workouts into the main document, the main document should behave like a journal. But on the other hand there’s the diary where I can enter additional information on workouts. Why are these two separated?
Explanation: Unlike pure journaling applications, TrailRunner has two modes. The route planning mode and the diary mode. These two modes are separated into the main window (with the primary focus on building a network of tracks to plan routes within) and the diary (with the main focus of archiving the raw data of recorded workouts). Even though seperated, TrailRunner still displays workout information for a selected route in the main window (if a related workout can be found in the diary).
Advice: When you import new workouts, make up your mind, if the workout course contains track segments you would like to add to your network of tracks. If so, use one of the merge options. If you (just) want to archive your workout in the diary, check the add diary option.
Tip: Unlike the main document, your diary is stored in a central location on your Mac. As you can have more than just one document, each of your documents could cover a different networks of tracks. For example you would like to have one document for your neighborhood and more for each location you where on holidays.
Additionaly, if you delete a route from the main document, it would not delete any workouts in the diary and vice versa. Both are a separate thing even though they might be related to each other.
Explanation: Unlike pure journaling applications, TrailRunner has two modes. The route planning mode and the diary mode. These two modes are separated into the main window (with the primary focus on building a network of tracks to plan routes within) and the diary (with the main focus of archiving the raw data of recorded workouts). Even though seperated, TrailRunner still displays workout information for a selected route in the main window (if a related workout can be found in the diary).
Advice: When you import new workouts, make up your mind, if the workout course contains track segments you would like to add to your network of tracks. If so, use one of the merge options. If you (just) want to archive your workout in the diary, check the add diary option.
Tip: Unlike the main document, your diary is stored in a central location on your Mac. As you can have more than just one document, each of your documents could cover a different networks of tracks. For example you would like to have one document for your neighborhood and more for each location you where on holidays.
Additionaly, if you delete a route from the main document, it would not delete any workouts in the diary and vice versa. Both are a separate thing even though they might be related to each other.
What's the resolution of the workout data graph?
10/08/08 10:20 Filed in: Import
Problem: When I view my workout data in other applications like garmin training center, the data points for heart-rate and speed are much more noisy detailed than in TrailRunner. Additionally the TrailRunner graph seems not to start at the left edge of the chart but appears to be indented. Furthernore a TrailRunner graph line sometimes is being drawn as a straight line without any intermediate data points, although there should be some.
Background: Other applications display the raw data of a device. This makes the graph unreadable. The philosophy of TrailRunner instead is to display the overall trend and development of your workout session.
Approach: TrailRunner has an auto split feature where the workout is being sliced into fixed distance intervals. For each interval the statistical median value is being calculated and one data point reflecting this value is then being used as a representative. As the location of the representative can be somewhere in-between the first interval, the graph might appear to be indented. Furthermore if representatives in adjacent intervals fall onto a straight line, only the edges representatives are being drawn and the connection line depicts the trend development.
Details: The auto split feature uses the following distance intervals. By the time of this writing it’s 250 m for workouts shorter than 10 km, then 500m up to 20 km, 1000 m up to 50 km and 10000 m from there on. A route with 42 km would then have 5 intervals.
Background: Other applications display the raw data of a device. This makes the graph unreadable. The philosophy of TrailRunner instead is to display the overall trend and development of your workout session.
Approach: TrailRunner has an auto split feature where the workout is being sliced into fixed distance intervals. For each interval the statistical median value is being calculated and one data point reflecting this value is then being used as a representative. As the location of the representative can be somewhere in-between the first interval, the graph might appear to be indented. Furthermore if representatives in adjacent intervals fall onto a straight line, only the edges representatives are being drawn and the connection line depicts the trend development.
Details: The auto split feature uses the following distance intervals. By the time of this writing it’s 250 m for workouts shorter than 10 km, then 500m up to 20 km, 1000 m up to 50 km and 10000 m from there on. A route with 42 km would then have 5 intervals.